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Courtney Twing
Professor Reid
English 102
2/2/2015
How Twitter Saved the Octothorpe and Twitters Secret Handshake: A Synthesis
We live in a fast-paced, connected world which is constantly globalizing. Devices, as
well as social media, run society. One cannot step outside without seeing it first-hand. Young
people especially are consistently connected to some form of device with internet, and where
there is internet, there is social media. One of the most widespread and consumer-loved social
media applications is Twitter. The site has perpetuated a change in communication with its
attractive hashtag, but there are major implications and changes attributed to this modern
development.
Twitters Secret Handshake by Ashley Parker was, in a nutshell, about the evolution of
the use of the hashtag in social media, and what effects it has upon our society such as the switch
from long, meaningful conversation to short, sweet, and to the point blurbs. Parker also
expounds upon the feeling of belonging to a sort of online "club" as a result of joining an online
social circle. How Twitter Saved the Octothorpe by Robert Fulford turned its gaze upon the
hashtag symbol itself as opposed to its utilization.
The application of the hashtag has radically impacted our understanding of speech by
excessively narrowing the vernacular. It is perhaps the most noticeable impact of social media
upon communication. In the past face-to-face conversation or sending letters was the only way
to exchange information, but with the advent of social media it is possible to, in 140 characters
or less, accurately describe a situation or one's feelings at any given time. More specifically the

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hashtag, used especially by Twitter aficionados, is enormously replacing length and depth.
Twitters Secret Handshake words it best when they say this:
Because you have a hashtag embedded in a short message with real language, it starts
exhibiting other characteristics of natural language, which means basically that people
start playing with it and manipulating it, said Jacob Eisenstein, a postdoctoral fellow at
Carnegie Mellon University in computational linguistics. Youll see them used as humor,
as sort of meta-commentary, where youll write a message and maybe you dont really
believe it, and what you really think is in the hashtag (Parker para. 9).
Eisenstein means that hashtag consumers tend to put a hashtag at the end of a phrase to
imply that what they actually think is the opposite. In this way, it sounds like sarcasm or biting
humor. For example, if a tweet reads "Gotta go to work" and the hashtag is #SoMuchFun,
chances are the hashtag implies that this person does not anticipate having fun.
How Twitter Saved the Octothorpe also touches upon this point when it quotes GQs
statement: Hashtags have changed the way we think, communicate, process information. # is
everywhere (Fulford 167). We can derive meaning from a word or phrase preceded by a
hashtag even if the word or phrase has seemingly nothing to do with the original microblog.
Both texts mention the microblog. Essentially it is a method of expressing ones opinions and
emotions in a concise way; in this case presenting itself as a tweet.
Social media is not only a method of communication; it is also a way to feel in-the-know,
savvy, or garner a sense of community. Twitters Secret Handshake chose a quote that put it
this way: Oh, I see what you did there, because youre on Twitter and Im on Twitter (Parker
para. 13). Not everyone is a Twitter devotee. A large draw of social media, especially for youth,

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is that perhaps their parents and grandparents are not utilizing this method of interaction. The
use of the hashtag in verbal communication tends to leave the older generations in the lurch.
Twitters Secret Handshake expresses this point further by explaining that you have to know
what Twitter is to really understand hashtags. If I was talking to my grandmother, I wouldnt
say, Im having a hashtag bad day because she wouldnt understand,' said Matt Graves, a Twitter
spokesman (Parker para. 16). This leaves the younger generations with a sense of privacy while
still amassing the ability to feel connected to their peers.
There has been so much change in the world of social media. It is evidenced by the
metamorphosis of the pound sign to the hashtag, the shift from Myspace to Facebook and
eventually Facebook to Twitter, and the shortening of communication to 140 characters or less.
Gone are the days of the long-winded e-mail. Fulford eloquently states that Change is the law
of usage (Fulford 167). He means that once something becomes old news, people will want to
come up with new and creative ways of reinvigorating it. Parker agrees. Twitters Secret
Handshake explains the change between the original use of the hashtag (organizing groups on
Twitter) into what it is known for today (auxiliary, often witty, information). Is this a positive
step for us to take? I have my doubts. 'If Twitter is a compression of ideas and a compression
of expression, then hashtags are just an extension of that, so of course it bleeds over into other
forms of communication, because our time is compressed, our thoughts are compressed and our
space is compressed' (Parker para. 12). This suggests a future in which people lose the ability
to have deep, meaningful discussions or write long, thoughtful letters to loved ones. There are
upsides to social media for sure, but it could also spell downfall during face-to-face interactions.
Twitter and the hashtag have impacted communication, our sense of involvement, and changed

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the way we look at everything online. Still, I hope social medias positive aspects will outweigh
the negatives in years to come.

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Works Cited
Fulford, Robert. How Twitter Saved the Octothorpe. Culture: A Reader for Writers.
New Yord: Oxford UP, 2014. 166-168. Print.
Parker, Ashley. "Twitters Secret Handshake." The New York Times. The New York Times
Company, 10 June 2011. Web. 2 February 2015.